Accident cut my achilles tendon, multiple surgeries and infection

by kathy
(rixford pa)

i cut my tendon in august of 2010 while taking out the trash...talk bout bad luck on part...i had no idea all i know was i stepped felt a pop and something zip up my leg i thought i broke it so i called to my hubby to come pick me up he brought me in and looked at my leg and said omg you got a big cut its gonna need stitches so he put me in the car and i drove to the er!!!!!

they looked at it said it was the achilles tendon and it would need repaired but there was no surgeon to do it that day so they stitched it and sent me home!!

the surgeon they recommended wanted $800.00 dollars up front i didn't have it so i had to find one that was covered by my insurance needless to say i didn't have surgery until almost a month later!!!when i went in they said it was a full break so i had no movement to my foot!!!!

i went for the surgery and 2 days later i was in unbearable pain it was late at night and i had a splint on but i knew something was wrong so i took the bandage off for a peek and sure enough everything towards the bottom was leaking and opening up!!!!

i called the doc first thing in the am told him what was going on he had me come in and put me in a cast!!!!!

well a week later and it was only getting worse so went to a different doc he cut the cast off and said why would they do that!!!

well eventually it was so bad i had to have a wound vac for a couple of weeks we got it down to a small hole and the doc cleared me to walk!!!

i was taking care of the wash slipped on the floor and it broke open again once it was open you could see all the stitches in the inside that didn't dissolve it was a mess!so went back to doc back to the wound vac they never did cut those out either!!!

by may it was somewhat healed but i still had a lot of problems so the doc decided to do surgery again in sept of 2011 he took out the graft and stitches cut the tendon in half cut all the scar tissue out sewed it with the stitches that need to be removed on the outside but the inside he put self dissolving stitches in again so i have wound and had stitches hanging out for 3 months he just now cut them out but i still have a lot of swelling by my heel and a lot of pain but he says im good to go!!!!!!!

the pain is unbearable and i have not one other doctor who will help me!!!!!

worse experience ever if i could go back and do it again i would of left it alone or found a better doc!!!!!!

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Joshua Answers:

Hi Kathy.

Ouch. That sounds no fun at all.

So...you took out the trash, stepped on something, and it slashed up through your lower leg and severed your Achilles Tendon.

And then you didn't get the tendon reattached for 2 months. And then you had infection and repeated achilles surgeries.

Yikes.

And now you're in pain. Yeah, I bet!

It makes sense that a contaminant got into your wound, and then when the Emergency Room sewed your skin shut, the contaminant PLUS the dead and dying ends and tissue of your achilles tendon caused a problem in there.

I don't know why the reattachment surgery didn't go well, but I don't know enough about what happened.

And, the proof is in the pudding...things haven't gone so well so far.

So, what to do about it now?

Ultimately you need to get the Process of Inflammation out, new blood and nutrition in (which includes into your body so it can get into your blood to get to your tissue) and you need to reduce muscle tightness and connective tissue shrinkwrapping.

I slipped and fell in the water cutting my heel a few days ago on something sharp in the water. The ortho Doctor says its 80% severed but is choosing casts and therapy over surgery. Everything I read on line suggests that surgery is a better option. Apparently now in 2016 they are doing less surgery and more therapy.

I'm athletic and want to continue with recreational sports on a regular basis. I'm wondering whether I should seek more ortho opinions ?

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Joshua Comments:

Hi Anonymous.

80% severed and no reattachment surgery? Hmmm.

Maybe if you're young, if it's a super clean slice, then casting the structure in a shortened position will work out ok.

But if there's not a tight connection, the tendon isn't going to heal back as structurally sound as you'd like it to.

Therapy is neat and all, but it's not going to fix a not-optimal tendon restructuring.

What did the surgeon say to justify the non-surgical approach?

I'm no surgeon but.....I'd go for a second opinion.

The skin is already cut, and the tendon is -right- there...no reason not to put a stitch or a staple in.

Aug 01, 2015Rating

The Good Newsby: Anonymous

For anyone who has cut their achilles tendon and is reading this, I would like to add my own positive outcome.

I severed my achilles tendon when I stepped on a metal band with the other foot and it flipped up and cut my left tendon. I was lucky, got a good ortho surgeon who repaired the tendon.

Was in cast for two weeks, then walking boot (no weight bearing)for two weeks, and now I am walking with the boot on. In three weeks I can come out of the boot, three more and it's time for physical therapy. Tendon is healing great, surgeon is very pleased.

I've had two of the doctors at the clinic where I work tell me it might never heal even to the point I'm at now. You can bet I'll be walking into their offices the day I get the boot off!

My son cut the top right of his foot wwtih a glass and it cut the tendon which basically operates his big toe which has a dropping now the doctor wants to do surgery again because they feel after removing the stitches putting him in acast for 5 week and taking it off the tendon has detached itself and a suregery is needed again.

However, now the doctor wants to do a graph and possible a screw in the big toe to hold it up is this safe for my 8 year old son to redo this surgery again and will this procedure work better than the 1st time or could this repeat even though the doctor wants to do it agin but using screws and graphs or even with this is it still a possiblilty this could detached again.

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Joshua Comments:

Hi Connie.

I imagine the surgery has already been done as it's been a while since you asked the question.

So. Is it safe to put a screw in the foot to hold the tendon?

Surgery etc aside, it's safe enough. Not pretty obviously, but he's young and assumably strong and healthy so odds are it will be fine.

If the tendon never heals back together, that's more dangerous (not life threatening, but quality of life threatening). So you kind of have to do the surgery, all in all.

Probably the screw will be removed in the future.

So. Is another reattachment surgery failure a possibility? Absolutely. It didn't work the first time, and I'll just go with that the surgeon is capable (that's not a sure bet, depending). There are a lot of variables and factors involved.

Does the graft increase the chances of being successful? Probably, but I'm not an expert there.

Possibly in the surgeon's defense, depending on the specifics of the how's and why's and where's of the cut, it might be a tough spot to heal. Especially on a rambunctious 8 year old.

What I want to know is, why did the first reattachment fail?

Poor job by the surgeon? Your kid doing jumping jacks? Poor health/poor nutrition/slow healer so the body didn't have what it needed to stitch itself back together adequately?